As a king with a well known weakness for wives, Henry VIII had no shortage of candidates lining up to be his next queen.
Portrait OF Queen Katherine Parr by Master John (L) and a book entitled, Sermon of St.Chrysothom, translated by Thomas Lupset 1543 are on public display for the first time at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire
Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire is where Katherine Parr is buried
But for one of his six spouses, marrying the king proved to be her greatest regret.
A new exhibition about the life of Katherine Parr, Henry’s sixth and final wife, reveals how she felt obliged to marry the king against her “own will” and rekindled her romance with an old flame, possibly while Henry was still alive.
Katherine’s feelings for Sir Thomas Seymour, one of Henry’s closest courtiers, are included in letters on public display for the first time at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire where she is buried.
Sir Thomas, the brother of Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife, courted Katherine before her marriage to the king and married her in secret shortly after Henry’s death in 1547.
In one letter, Katherine, a devout Protestant who encouraged Henry to press ahead with the Reformation movement in England, tells Sir Thomas that she had not wanted to marry Henry, but felt it was her duty to wed the king against her “own will,” to keep England Protestant, something which was by now means certain.
Accepting Sir Thomas’ marriage proposal, she writes: “I would not have you think that this mine honest goodwill towards you to proceed of any sudden motion of passion; but as truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty to marry you before any man I know.
"Howbeit God withstood my will therein most vehemently for a time, and through his grace made that possible which seemed to me impossible; that was made me renounce utterly my own will, and to follow his most willingly.”
The letter, which is signed “Katherine the Queen, KP”, is believed to have been written in 1547, though it is unclear whether it was written before or after Henry’s death on January 28.
In another letter, believed to have been written shortly after Henry’s death, she asks Sir Thomas to plan an illicit dawn liaison at her London home, Chelsea Manor: “When it shall be your pleasure to repair hither you should take some pain to come early in the morning, that you may be gone again by seven o’clock, and so I suppose you may come without suspect.
"I pray you, let me have knowledge near night at what hour you will come, that your porteress may wait at the gate to the fields for you.”
Katherine and Sir Thomas are thought to have married in secret just weeks after Henry’s death. When their marriage was revealed later that year, it caused a scandal.
Dr David Starkey, the historian, said the letters shed new light on Katherine, who is widely-viewed as Henry’s most steadfast wife.
He said: “This vision of her as some kind of asexual woman and doting queen is preposterous. She clearly has the hots for Thomas Seymour and lusts after him. She is taking a risk writing it all down, which is racy given her position as dowager queen.
“The letters reveal she was secretly passionate, but also shrewd because she balances carnal desires with her sense of duty to obey God.
"Most of Henry’s wives were falling over themselves to marry him but she is the only one where there is any evidence to show that she didn’t actually want to be queen.”
The exhibition at Sudeley Castle marking the 500th anniversary of Katherine’s birth will also include her personal copies of Prayers or Meditations, published in 1545 and The Lamentations of a Sinner, published in 1547.
She became the first English queen to write and publish material under her own name with the two books, which strongly championed Protestant views and attacked the Vatican.
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